If you have a heart and it beats, this is important to you. If you’re an athlete in training mode or someone who lives a stressful life, this is also important to you. Now that all of you are included, please read on.

Your heart beats a certain amount of beats a minute and although it appears that each beat is spaced evenly, similar to a metronome ticking away, this isn’t the case. In fact it shouldn’t be the case, but at times it will be the case. If you got out of bed this morning feeling refreshed, recovered from workouts and no anxiety or stress, the time between each heart beat will vary like an exciting drum solo. On the other hand if you get out of bed tired, stressed, not recovered from the previous days or weeks workouts, your heart will beat with evenly space beats, pounding away with the excitement of listening to a steady water drip.

Here is a little bit of science. Your nervous system functions in two different ways. One is the “Parasympathetic Nervous System”, Sometimes called the rest and digest system, and the other is the “Sympathetic Nervous System”, often known as the flight or fight system. When you’re relaxed, recovered, and unstressed, you’re running on the “Parasympathetic Nervous System”, and when you’re over-training, anxious, stressed, you’re running on the “Sympathetic Nervous System”. When you’re operating in the “Parasympathetic Nervous System”, you have a variable heart rate with varying length of time between beats. This is good, healthy and indicating good recovery between workouts. When you’re operating on the “Sympathetic Nervous System”, you’re likely not recovered from workouts, living in a stressful state and probably not sleeping well.

So much for science and here’s where it gets really interesting. With a high quality Bluetooth heart rate strap and your very smart phone, you can see where you exist between these two nervous system functions. Are you training too much or should you take another day of rest or maybe your job is creating extra stress and you’re wondering why you’re anxious. The app for your phone along with an accurate heart rate strap can read the variations in time between your heartbeats. It rates between 1 and 10. A rating of six or below and you may be overtraining and a rating of seven and above will give you a green light to train. Seven may be a light day and a rating of ten means that your fully recovered and you can go all out. If you’re always in the ten rating, this may show that you’re not training hard enough because some workouts should require a couple of days of recovery to get back to the ten rating.

The free App “Elite HRV” is available for Android and Iphone platforms. If you would like to test the App before investing in a Bluetooth Heart Rate strap you can see John at the Core. The Core has Polar H7 Bluetooth straps you can test or purchase.

Forget the idea of military style training and hellish assault courses that leave you crumpled in an unfit heap after the end of a gruelling session. And dismiss any notions you have of terrifying and confidence-knocking instructors screaming at your lack of physical prowess. Consider instead the real Boot Camp benefits. For this is an exercise program that can go a long way to improving your fitness levels

If you’ve no idea what Boot Camp involves then your first step is to find out, as session structure, intensity and goals can change between different fitness facilities. The key is to not be afraid to ask what to expect and what benefits you can will get from joining. If you turn up to a Boot Camp without not knowing what you are getting yourself into, you may find yourself not quite able to keep up with your classmates.

Once you have an idea about what Boot Camp is, you might want to understand what some of the plus points are. This can help if you’re wavering on the edge and not entirely sure if you want to take the Boot Camp plunge. So what are some of the benefits?#

Concentrated focus – If you already keep active and fit with regular exercise then your attention is already geared towards health and fitness. However, at times, if you want to make big changes, such as to lose weight and tone up quickly and effectively, you may need to up the ante and focus in on your goal. Boot Camp is an ideal way to help you reach your target by honing in on what you want and offering intense exercise sessions to make sure you get there.

Creates healthy expectations – Fitness classes which you can easily dip in and out of might offer a relaxed way of keeping in shape, but they don’t necessarily generate a sense of personal responsibility. A Boot Camp where you’re expected to show effort and determination, as well as commitment, can really inspire you to put healthy pressure on yourself. This in turn means that you’re more involved and more motivated to not let down your trainer, the others around you and most importantly, yourself.

Motivates you to examine your lifestyle – Because of the focus on fitness in a Boot Camp environment, you naturally start to look at your life as a whole and how healthy you are. Assessments of your fitness levels, monitoring and working toward a goal, really highlight how exercise, diet and nutrition are linked, as well as all your other lifestyle choices. You might not get the same sense of interconnectedness from classes or sessions where you simply drop in and view as separate from the rest of your life.

Dynamic workout – Many people lose focus and motivation because they get bored. The whole point of Boot Camp is that it is as diverse as it is intense. If you add in the fact that you will be progressing and changing along the way, then you have an interesting exercise mix that should keep you engaged enough to realize your exercise goals.

Like-minded exercisers – Some people take up activities for the social scene, others because they are firmly fixed on a goal. A real positive about Boot Camp is that because of what it stands for, you are going to meet other people similar to yourself who want to seriously improve their lives. However, this shared goal means that there is a sense of camaraderie and support which is not always found in other exercise sessions.

Faster results – Boot Camp is effective at identifying ways of reaching health and fitness goals in a faster way. Left to your own devices you might struggle to get there at all and classes or sessions which repeat one style of exercise might not deliver the right results on time either.

Boot Camp may be a challenge but because it is something you can really get to grips with the benefits are greater than the sum of each training session. Find out about what Boot Camp can do for your body, mind and life!

Are you looking for that magic pill that protects you from heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, obesity, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, depression and even boosts memory. Read why exercise is the best medicine and if inactivity was packaged and sold as a product it would need to carry a health warning.